The Last Evolution

Chapter 2 — The Blue Stone in the Rubble

The pounding footsteps in the dark hallway closed in fast and forced Max to back a step away from the shattered doorway.

His right hand gripped the bent iron pipe tight as he stared out of the grocery store's back room.

Before he could even catch his breath, a gaunt shadow shot out of the corridor like a bullet from a rifle barrel.

So fast!

The muscles in Max's neck went taut as he jerked his shoulder back at the last second. Rotting teeth slick with black fluid snapped shut less than an inch from his nose and blasted him with the nauseating stench of carrion.

The wiry corpse lost its footing and crashed into a stack of cardboard boxes. Yet before Max could swing his pipe, three more figures bolted out from the end of the same hallway at a freakish pace.

"Damn it," Max hissed as his breath caught.

One runner is bad enough, let alone four of them in a room this tight! My strength went up, sure, but my stomach's been empty for three days thanks to Chloe and Derek!

Taking on four fast monsters while starving was suicide. If his stamina gave out mid-fight, he would end up as their lunch.

Without hesitation, Max kicked the heavy iron shelf beside the door until it toppled over to block the hallway, then spun around and hurled himself through the rotting wooden window at the back of the building.

Crash!

Brittle wood and grimy glass shattered into pieces. Max sailed through the air before tumbling hard across a narrow alley littered with concrete rubble and broken glass.

"Argh—!"

Sharp pain lanced through his right palm as a jagged piece of rusted sheet metal sliced his skin open and drew fresh blood.

Great. I barely make it out of a zombie ambush inside, and now I slice my hand open on scrap metal!

From the broken window above him, the shrieks of the runner zombies still echoed loudly. Max planted his hands against the ground to push himself up.

Right then, his bloodied right palm closed around a rough, egg-sized stone wedged between the chunks of concrete.

It was a dark blue rock with a pitted surface like a meteorite fragment. Bizarrely, the warm blood coating the stone soaked straight into its pores, and a dim blue glow flared between Max's fingers.

"Wait a second, what's this light—?!"

Before he could toss the strange rock away, the air in the alley violently twisted.

The rank stench of rotting flesh and the suffocating gloom of the alley vanished at once. A spatial pull yanked his body sideways and blacked out his vision.

The next second, both of Max's knees slammed onto clean asphalt warmed by bright sunlight.

"Cough!"

Max coughed and blinked against the glare. His ears, which had known nothing but monster growls for weeks, were bombarded by honking horns and the lively chatter of a crowd.

When he looked up, his breath caught in his throat. A smooth paved road stretched out before him, lined with gleaming cars and intact high-rises, while pedestrians strolled beneath a clear sky without a single zombie in sight.

Where the hell am I? Don't tell me I hit my head on the concrete so hard when I jumped that I'm hallucinating the world before the apocalypse?

Before his brain could process the impossible scene, the sweet aroma of butter and freshly baked bread wafted from an open-air bakery right on the sidewalk.

His stomach, empty for three straight days, cramped with a vengeance. Extreme hunger overrode every shred of reason in Max's head and drove his feet forward on pure instinct to snatch a loaf of bread off the display tray and shove it straight into his mouth.

"Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing?! Thief!"

The stocky bakery owner stormed out with his face flushed crimson. "How dare a filthy bum like you rob my stall in broad daylight!"

Wham!

A heavy punch landed square on Max's cheek and knocked his weakened body onto the asphalt.

Two shopkeepers from next door rushed over and started kicking him in the ribs and back.

"Take that, you goddamn lowlife!" the bakery owner cursed as he kept swinging his foot. "Showing up in filthy rags, stinking like a corpse, and grabbing people's food without paying!"

"Call security right now so they can drag this lunatic to the police station!" one of the shopkeepers panted.

Beneath the rain of kicks, Max curled up with both arms shielding his head. The corner of his lip split open, and his ribs throbbed with sharp pain.

"Ugh—! Wait, this actually hurts!" Max groaned hoarsely.

So this isn't a dream or a dying hallucination?! The pain in my ribs and the warm bread in my mouth are a hundred percent real! Damn it... even with my body changed, getting beaten up while starving still hurts like hell!

If his stomach hadn't been empty for three days, snapping their legs would have been easy. Still, starting a bloody brawl in a peaceful city crawling with cops was pure stupidity.

"Enough, sir! Stop kicking him!"

A middle-aged woman stepped in to break up the commotion. She held the bakery owner's shoulder while offering him several bills. "Look at his pale face and torn clothes—he clearly lost his head because he's starving! Let me pay for the food!"

The bakery owner let out a rough snort after taking the cash, then stomped back inside his shop with the two guards grumbling behind him.

The middle-aged woman crouched beside Max and held out a large bag of sliced bread along with a big bottle of mineral water.

"Take these, son," she said with pity in her eyes. "Hurry up and find a safe place to eat before they call security."

"Thank you... thank you so much," Max rasped.

He clutched the bag of bread and the water bottle against his chest, then limped away into a quiet alley behind a row of storefronts.

Behind a pile of cardboard boxes, he gulped down the water and ate the bread slowly while inspecting the blue meteor stone in his hand.

This blue meteor stone is what brought me to a world before the apocalypse. Too bad I didn't have any money or preparation on my first trip. But if I can figure out how this rock works, I'll never have to worry about starving to death again!

After he had hidden in the alley for nearly two hours to recover his strength, the blue stone in his palm pulsed with warmth again and gave off a faint glow.

Crap, don't tell me there's a time limit and I have to go back already?!

Max hugged the remaining bag of bread and the large water bottle tight against his chest. In the blink of an eye, the spatial pull yanked him away once more.

When his vision cleared, he was sitting back in the dark, foul-smelling alley—right where he had fallen earlier.

"I really came back... and the bread and water came with me," Max murmured as a faint smile tugged at his lips at the sight of the supplies in his arms.

Grrrhhh...

The smile froze on his face when a low growl echoed from the end of the alley, accompanied by the shadow of a zombie crawling straight toward him.